Using poetry in novels a good option?
I write fiction as well as poetry. And many a times I use poetry as a tool to bring out that acute feeling of pain or love (as required) in my explanations. What if I use poetry to introduce or end a scene? Is it alright to do so, or does it also has some damaging effect?
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One of your characters could "write" the poem and recite it to another. You could present the poem as something in a book which a character reads, or establish that your character is a poet who is always composing in her head and tends to think in verse, so the poetry is actually coming from her thoughts.
But to stop dead in the middle of prose narration, insert a poem, and continue merrily along is disruptive to the flow of reading. Unless you're writing something truly surreal, where you're playing with the medium as part of how you're telling the story, I don't recommend it.
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